


Stormy Weather

by vanillafluffy



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Don't panic, Gen, Hurricane, Storm - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 06:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7256503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillafluffy/pseuds/vanillafluffy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a relatively recent resident of Florida's Space Coast, Chris Beck worries when confronted with the first hurricane of the season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stormy Weather

**Author's Note:**

> Been there, done that: Lived on the east coast of Florida for a long time. And yeah, most of the locals just yawn at low-level storms. (They're rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being most severe.) The newbies, though, freak out at the thought of a hurricane. It would be amusing if it weren't for the long gas lines and pandemonium at the grocery stores.

Hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here it is, only June 11th, and they're looking at the first hurricane of the year, Hurricane Cleo, after two tropical storms fizzled, one falling apart in the Caribbean, the other raining itself out over the Yucatan peninsula. 

Chris Beck is alarmed when NASA sends everyone but a skeleton crew home from KSC. He hurries out to the 'Vette, ready to zoom home, pack up Beth and baby Stella and get the bleep out of Dodge. Except that the road is bumper-to-bumper with everyone else who's off work...he's going to need to fill up the tank; forty-five minutes of stop-and-go has made the needle droop drastically downward. 

The wholesale club where he usually gets gas has lines out to the street, but he knows where there's a Cumberland Farms station off the main drag. While he's pumping, he calls home. "Do we need anything? Bread, milk, a rowboat?"

"Diapers, the six-month size. Milk. And Mark says we're getting low on beer and snacks."

"Okay, I'll hit Publix."

Predictably, her response is, "Don't hit it too hard."

The store is busier than usual for the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Everyone is buying flats of bottled water, batteries and bags of ice. It ramps up his anxiety a notch. He's grabbed everything Beth asked for and is ready to fight his way to the pallets of water, when Virgil hails him. 

Virgil's the assistant manager, an easygoing good ole boy whose son, Elon, is a space buff--Chris and Mark like to encourage that sort of thing--and he looks calm amid the chaos. "Shoot, Doc--you don't need to head for the hills for a piddly little storm like this. It'll rain for a day or two, and it'll be kinda windy. If you're worried, roll down your hurricane shutters. You've got hurricane shutters, right? There you go!"

Chris thanks him and checks out. From the parking lot, he calls a coworker for a second opinion. "Evacuate?" Joe Hays guffaws. "I live in a condo on the beach, and I wouldn't evacuate for anything less than a solid Category 3! This is barely a Cat 1--seriously, it's no big deal."

He heads home with his plunder, to find Mark in the kitchen putting together a meatloaf, his wife giving Stella a bath, and Rover gnawing on a pig-ear. No signs of panic, although the TV in the kitchen is tuned to the storm coverage on Channel 13. The news team jokes with each other in between advice about what to do and what not to do. 

To be on the safe side, Chris and Mark roll down the hurricane shutters on the river-facing side of the house. They make sure the patio furniture and the grill are under cover in the garage. The rain begins around 4pm, but it doesn't seem any worse than some of the afternoon thunderstorms they get.

The meatloaf is fantastic--and it's a big one, so there are leftovers, yum. Hurricane Cleo, on the other hand, is nothing to get excited about. 

..


End file.
